Yesterday we celebrated our first ‘proper’ Fourth of July – proper, being that we now have a little American citizen in our family and as such we must rejoice every American holiday and tradition in her honor. Well, actually she will be a dual citizen – once we’ve finished the mountain of paperwork that goes along with it. But for now, she’s our all-American girl.
We headed to our Capital Building downtown to join in with the celebrations.
Luckily there was a decent amount of cloud coverage to make the 97 degree heat more bearable (and to stop my dad’s head from burning).
There was a Naturalization ceremony taking place, which was moving and special. A window into a world we may venture in one day.
And the applause. The applause made me even more proud to be linked to this Country – even if that link is a 9 month old baby. People cheered and congratulated these new Citizens and I wondered how each of them felt to be surrounded by such warmth.
Pretty special, probably.
I forgot to mention that I had dressed Seren for the day in a pretty demure patriotic outfit – t’was Ralph Lauren so she needs to be able to wear it more than once to get its worth lol!! I was looking very festive, but then no-one ever takes pictures of me.
The husband decided that Seren should join in the Liberty March and ringing of the Liberty Bell, a potential annual ritual may be in the running here. I let him go for it, puffing and panting behind them all the way.
Still puffing/panting/stropping.
At this point I was wondering where the eff this Liberty Bell was, how close it was in proximity to our parked car, and where the nearest Sonic was.
Ah there it is. Now, Sonic………
Oh nevermind.
This dude got some serious evils from me, it was effin’ 300 degrees and he wanted to talk forever. I get it, I do, but this was for kids and kids need hydration. They need Sonic. It’s Raleigh law don’t you know.
Anyway he finally got to it and the bell rangeth. 13 times.
It only took 4 times to realise we were way too close to the bell and Seren was none too impressed with the noise. Commence major baby freak-out. So we had to leave, before North Carolina was rung in, and headed to the car. Which was only 7 minutes away BTW. Phew for that. But we enjoyed ourselves and got to experience something new, something that feels less alien now that we have just cause for celebrating it. It felt good to know that if someone were to ask, I could say “yeah, we’re here, but we’re a part of it now”. We’re a part of the family, in a roundabout way.
Happy Fourth everyone!
